1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tire vulcanizer for manufacturing a tire by vulcanization molding a green tire followed by expansion cooling.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of conventional tire vulcanizers is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-12421 which is hereby fully incorporated by reference. This tire vulcanizer comprises a tire vulcanizing press for vulcanization molding a green tire, two swing loaders for carrying a vulcanization molded tire from the tire vulaning press, a post-cure inflator for expansion cooling the vulcanized tire carried by each swing loader, and a roller conveyor for carrying the tire cooled by the post-cure inflator. The roller conveyor is attached to the post-cure inflator without obstructing the rise and fall of a lower bead part holding rim plate, and laid into horizontal and inclined states by an air cylinder connected thereto through a shaft.
In this tire vulcanizer, a vulcanized tire is carried out from the tire vulcanizing press by each swing loader and carried into the post-cure inflator by swing motion to shift it to expansion cooling process. The tire cooled by the post-cure inflator is carried out of the post-cure inflator by inclining the roller conveyer by the air cylinder, discharged to a carrying-out conveyor by a discharge conveyor inclined continuously to the roller conveyor, and carried to a tire inspecting machine or shipping place.
In the conventional tire vulcanizer, however, a large longitudinal space extending from the tire vulcanizing press to the carrying-out conveyor was required because of the serial arrangement of the tire vulcanizing press, the post-cure inflator, the discharge conveyor and the like over the longitudinal direction. Accordingly, the forward space of the tire vulcanizing press could not be sufficiently ensured when the tire vulcanizer was set in a facility such as factory, so that the work for replacing the mold of the tire vulcanizing press by a forklift or the like was difficult. Further, the setting space for a green tire placing base and a green tire truck to be arranged in the front of the tire vulcanizing press was reduced, which often caused their overflowing into a passage.
Further, the carrying-out loader of a conventional tire vulcanizer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-113212 which is hereby fully incorporated by reference, for example, comprises a tire chuck 102 for holding a tire and a rotating arm 103 for the tire chuck 102 which are situated on the post-cure inflator side 101 of a tire vulcanizing press 100 as shown in FIG. 16, and it delivers the vulcanized tire from the tire vulcanizing press 100 to the post-cure inflator 101. Such a carrying-out loader is provided with two hydraulic cylinders 104, 105 for swing motion so that it can be stopped in three positions of a tire vulcanizing press internal prescribed position P0, a post-cure inflator internal prescribed position P2, and a waiting position P3.
However, since the two hydraulic cylinders 104, 105 had cylinder parts largely protruded toward the post-cure inflator 101 side in which the top ends of their rods were mutually joined, the post-cure inflator could not be arranged closely to the tire vulcanizing press side, resulting in an increase in space therefor. Further, since the rotating arm was also extended, the rotating moment was increased to make it difficult to hold the stop position precision.